Top 10 Make You Smarter YouTube Channels - TopX Ep.13

- Starting off our countdown is a surprisingly large brand name. Mental Floss is not only a YouTube channel, but is also a print magazine. We all know the state of print media, so it makes sense that they’d branch out to this sexy new medium we call the internets. All the cool kids are doing it. Here you may recognize John Green, who’s appeared on our episode from Vlog channels and is generally all over YouTube.
- Mental Floss focuses on answering every-day questions and debunking coming misconceptions. Those every day questions, like “what is dirt made out of” or “why do our teeth chatter when we’re cold” are answered on their show Big Questions, and common misconceptions, like “Misconceptions about exercise” are examined on a show cleverly titled: “Misconceptions”.
- Lastly, just like we were doing before doing it was cool, Mental floss features quick lists of fun trivia on a variety of subjects. Despite the fact that these are wayyy less in depth than their other shows, they’re actually their most popular segment, as the rapid-fire barrage of interesting facts can be quite addictive.

- Man, countdowns eh? If you’re not playing minecraft, doing taylor swift covers or pranking your girlfriend, chances are you’re doing a countdown. Continuing in this fine YouTube tradition is our #9 pick, Matthew Santoro, who may or may not be the guy from the cover of You Don’t Know Jack.
- Here on TopX, we often mention that certain channels update on consistent basis, making them reliable sources for a weekly or even daily fix. Matthew Santoro’s channel is one of those: he uploads a 50 Amazing Facts to Blow Your Mind countdown every week, in between these releases countdowns of 10 on more specific topics.
- Like Mental Flosses’ countdowns, these videos are less about learning 1 topic extensively, and serve more as a barrage of interesting trivia to satisfy your conversational needs.

- Moving away from light hearted trivia and delving deeper into tougher subjects, coming in at #8 is MinutePhysics.
- MinutePhysics is easily recognizable from their hand drawn, stop motion style. I use hand drawn in a literal sense here, as you’ll often see a hand come into the frame and drawn the illustration in question. The art style goes for bare bones simplicity, with a stick figure style that will seem quite familiar to anyone who reads the web comic XKCD.
- As you might expect, the topics discussed on Minute Physics can get pretty advanced. While these topics do vary in complexity, the videos really excel at explaining common-yet-complex concepts, like e=MC2 and Schrodinger’s Cats. So, if you’re too embarrassed to admit that you don’t know what Sea Level actually means, then check em’ out.

- Those damn Green brothers are at it again. At #7 we have SciShow, hosted by Hank Green, brother to John Green, and co-host of the Vlogbrothers channel we mentioned earlier. Hank is really the heart and soul of this channel, as each video is a heavily host driven affair.
- Much like his brother’s channel, Hank’s SciShow specializes in demystifying the mysteries of everyday life and clarifying common scientific misconceptions. SciShow definitely goes into topics that are a bit more outlandish though, certainly one’s that come up with less frequency than those on other channels. These topics range from What Are Blood Types to why your joints crack when you crack your knuckles.
- It’s that variety that really differentiates SciShow from its contemporaries. The fields covered include, but are not limited to chemistry, physics, biology, zoology and entomology. With a least 2 or 3 videos published a week, there’s tons to sink your teeth into here.

- Coming up next is AsapSCIENCE, a channel hosted by Mitchel Moffit and Gregory Brown, who you can see serenading potential subscribers on their channel page.
- Asap uses a stop-motion-white-board style that is very similar to MinutePhysics. However, AsapSCIENCE just seems to do the whole thing a little bit cleaner, rarely having to rely on outside pictures while still clearly illustrating the concept their explaining.
- The guys at AsapScience have clearly put a lot of effort into making their videos as accessible as possible. Everything from the animations style to the cadence and vocabulary all the way to the way the titles they choose for their videos, AsapScience has positioned themselves as a something that would be as fun and interesting for kids as it would be for adults.

- Just past the halfway point now we have another channel hosted by the Green Brothers. (off camera) Are you kidding me?
- Not content to settle with their other 48 channels, here the Green bros offer Crash Courses in various subjects. Whereas on other channels they answer questions about specific problems or questions, here they go in depth into certain topics, helping you become quasi experts in a variety of fields in 15 minutes or less.
- As you could expect, these videos are a bit more extensive than most of the channels we’ve already seen, but that’s not to say they’re dry or boring. A mix of slick, stylish animations, solid supporting b-roll footage and the quirky Green brothers as a host makes the clips very watchable and entertaining. Certainly better than school, I promise you.

- Smarter Everyday follows the scientific adventures of its host, Destin Sandlin. I say adventures because, rather than set up a home studio, most of his videos are filmed on location. These adventures often explore the science of everyday things, like tattoos or slapshots.
- Although he has access to professional animations and high speed cameras, Destin films himself throughout these episodes with a hand held camera, “selfie style”. This serves to showcase him as a host, and gives the videos a bit of an informal, participatory style, as it helps you feel like you’re going along with him.
- Aside from the eccentric host and overall style, one thing that Smarter Everyday really has going for it is ultra slow motion footage. His most popular videos are almost all ultra fast things in ultra slow motion, things like an AK Firing underwater to human skin being tattooed. Scientific or not, it looks pretty damn cool.

- Contiuing the trend of channels that help you really learn a topic rather than just bombard you with interesting trivia, we have KHHHAAAN Academy, a channel founded by Salman Khan.
- More of an intellectual institution that an entertain video channel, Khan Academy is no joke: their motto is to “Provide a world class education for everyone, everywhere”.
- Taking a quick look at the videos or even the stills, you’d be forgiven if you thought that this was a similar channel, stylistically, to MinutePhysics or AsapSCIENCE, but you would be very wrong. While those channels go to great lengths to make their videos easy and accessible, Khan Academy’s videos soul focus is on being thorough with their topics.
- While it’s definitely not light hearted fare, if you’re looking something to replace that fancy education you can’t afford or didn’t pay attention to while you were receiving it, Khan Academy is your best bet.

- Somewhat similar to Smarter Everyday, Veritasium is a host driven channel that’s frequently filmed on location.
- Like pretty much every other channel on our list that isn’t a “course” channel, such as Khan Academy, Veritasium specializes in answering everyday questions and debunking common misconceptions. He’s climbed higher on this list than his contemporary Destin, who’s actually appeared on his channel, simply because of the polish and production value of his videos. There’s better camera work, underlying music, and all round professionalism to his clips that help him stand out.
- What’s ironic about this high production value that I’ve point out, is that he’s actually got a second channel called 2Veritasium. Here he posts behind the scenes footage or, and I’m quoting from the about page, try things that are less flashy but still just as enlightening. Apparently all that fancy editing I mentioned is a bit time consuming.

HM #1 CGP Grey
Channel URL: youtube.com/CGPGrey

HM #2 Vi Hart
Channel URL: youtube.com/Vihart

HM #3 Science Channel
Channel URL: youtube.com/ScienceChannel

HM #4 PBS Idea Channel
Channel URL: youtube.com/pbsideachannel

HM #5 Wisecrack
Channel URL: youtube.com/thugnotes

HM #6 Periodic Videos
Channel URL: youtube.com/periodicvideos

- Rounding out our list is one last channel about Mind Blowing Facts. That’s a direct quote from their about page, so you it’s safe to say that trivia is going to play a heavy part with this, our #1 pick.
- I know I’ve repeated this a few times already, but this is another channel, and the last we’ll see today, who’s videos like to solve, or at least discuss common questions. Vsause differentiates itself by throwing in a decent helping of philosophical, psychological or existential questions into the mix, so along-side stuff like “what happens to guns in space” or whether or not the 5 second rule is accurate, you have things like why do we get bored or what makes things cute.
- Now, I mentioned everyday questions, but really, Vsause is much better at covering questions that you probably DON’T ASK yourself very often, like How Much Does the Internet Weigh? Or What if Everyone on Earth Jumped at the same time.
- It’s this creative mix of hard science answering quirky questions that makes Vsause such an great channel to watch, and, coupled with their staggering subscriber numbers, the big reason whey they’re #1.